Week 11: 50 Albums That Changed Music

[Swish]

Yes, I'm a little late with this today, but I was freaking swamped with work and just finished playing racquetball, so I figured I could post before watching some football and then the best show on TV, Weeds.

Anyhoot, this week's selection is a personal favorite since I was a lad, by a performer who changed personas like no others before or after him. Yes, this one is David Bowie's - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (1972)

Bowie's revolutionary mix of hard rock and glam pop was given an otherworldly look and feel by his coquettish alter ego Ziggy. It's not so much that every act that followed dyed their hair orange in homage to the spidery spaceman; more that they learned the value of creating a "bubble" of image and presentation that fans could fall in love with. Without this we'd be lost. No Sex. No Pistols, no Prince, no Madonna, no Duran Duran, no Boy George, no Kiss, no BonJovi, no "Bohemian Rhapsody".

Wow, can it really be 34 years old? I could really not care less if there had never been a Madonna, Duran Duran, Boy George, Kiss, or Bon Jovi, none of whom could hold a candle to Bowie IMHO, but he had gobs of influence on many of the bands I saw and heard in my formative years.

Let the games begin,
Swish